In a conversation with the Financial Times, Irish businessman Niall Fitzgerald reflected on his time as chairman of the British Museum‘s trustees. The former chief executive of Unilever, Fitzgerald became chairman  in 2006 and has focused his eight years in office on reworking the museum’s funding models and providing a stronger structure to the museum’s management. Under his auspices, the British Museum has entered into a profitable deal loaning objects to Abu Dhabi’s Zayed National Museum in addition to becoming, after the Louvre, the second-most visited museum in the world in 2013 . (more…)

Marcel Duchamp, Bicycle Wheel (1916/64)  © Succession Marcel Duchamp / ADAGP, Paris / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York 2014. Courtesy Gagosian Gallery. Photo by Philippe Migeat

Cunningly installed just down the street from the monumental Jeff Koons retrospective at The Whitney Museum, Gagosian Gallery is currently presenting a small but impressive exhibition of Marcel Duchamp’s body of readymades, offering a nuanced historical counterpoint to some of the artist’s most distinguished predecessors. (more…)

Researchers at Singapore’s Institute of Materials Research and Engineering have created an impressively accurate replica of Monet’s Impression, Sunrise using nano printing technology.  The new technology, which uses focused beams of electrons and microscopic aluminum rods to print at extremely detailed levels.“Each color pixel on this image was mapped to the closest color from a palette that we created using arrays of metal nanodisks, and the code spits out a series of geometries corresponding to this color,” says researcher Joel K.W. Yang. (more…)

A new Internet program called Touching the Art has premiered on the Ovation Youtube channel.  Hosted by Casey Jane Ellison, the show takes an irreverent tack on discussing and analyzing the mechanisms and trends of the contemporary art world, with a sense of humor much akin to Hennessy Youngman’s Art Thoughtz.  “Is art somehow better because the person who starred in Transformers made it?” Ellison asks in one segment. (more…)

The Wall Street Journal Reports that the death of German art collector Cornelius Gurlitt in May of this year has brought to light works by major artists such as Edgar Degas, Auguste Rodin, and Henri Matisse, which had been part of  Gurlitt’s over 1,400 piece collection. Although Gurlitt willed this collection to the Kunstmuseum in Bern, Switzerland, the possible origin of the collection in Nazi seizures on Jewish art dealers leaves its fate uncertain. (more…)

Media artist Daniel Canogar follows in the footsteps of artists like JR, Ryan McGinley, and Tracey Emin as he takes the reins for the latest iteration of the Times Square Alliance series “Midnight Moment”, an initiative that seeks to promote creative content through the Square’s billboards and news kiosks.  Titled “Storming Times Square,” the installation is unique in the way it generates content; from July 24th to July 27th, Canogar will film willing passers-by as they crawl over a green-screen, creating footage which will then be displayed on the Square’s 47 screens each night in September. (more…)

Huma Bhabha, Untitled (2013 ), all images courtesy VeneKlasen/Werner

On view at VeneKlasen/Werner Berlin is a group of new works by Pakistan-born artist Huma Bhabha, marking her first solo exhibition in Berlin. The sculptures and collage drawings, which were created in 2013 while Bhabha was working as a resident artist at The American Academy in Berlin, will remain on view through July 26th.

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A recent Bloomberg article features an examination of the direct correlation between value appreciation and the price of pieces at auction. By studying the auction sales of the top ten artists over the past ten and twenty years, the article suggests that, in the ever-shifting art market, the safest way to ensure a profit is to buy big names like Cy Twombly, Gerhard Richter, and Damien Hirst at big prices.

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The new 5th avenue home for The Museum for African Art was planned as an elegant and impressive addition to Museum Mile and a cultural contender to neighbors such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Neue Galerie. Unfortunately, the planned move and expansion have been fraught with budgeting and funding problems, forcing the museum to downsize its dream and echoing the struggle faced by many smaller art institutions. (more…)

In May or June of next year London might finally play host to Damien Hirst’s new venture, an exhibition space built to house his considerable collection of contemporary art. In the works since 2012, the South London space plans to feature a restaurant and office space alongside six separate galleries filled with pieces by artists such as Jeff Koons, Francis Bacon, and, of course, Hirst himself. (more…)

Artist James Turrell is among the group of recipients for the National Medal of Arts this week, alongside Linda Ronstadt, dancer-choreographer Bill T. Jones, author Maxine Hong Kingston, and Broadway composer John Kander.  The group will be presented with the award by President Barack Obama. (more…)

Three artists in Germany have used the fat from Joseph Beuys‘ work Fettecke (1982) to distill their own liquor, and to serve it to visitors during a performance.  The performers, professor of art in Bremen Markus Löffler and artists Andree Korpys and Dieter Schmal, combined the fat with blue pigment from a Yves Klein work, and created a home distilled drink.  “The taste is reminiscent of Parmesan,” says Löffler. (more…)

A new study has found an interesting link between a synthetic dopamine used to treat Parkinson’s Disease, and sudden bouts of intense creativity. “I started painting from morning till night, and often all through the night until morning. I used countless numbers of brushes at a time. I used knives, forks, sponges … I would gouge open tubes of paint–it was everywhere,” says one patient.  “But I was still in control at that point. Then, I started painting on the walls, the furniture, even the washing machine.”  (more…)

The Smithsonian Institution is reportedly in talks to build an expansion in London’s Olympic Park, a project that would become part of Mayor Boris Johnson’s plan to build a massive cultural center on the grounds of the 2o12 Olympics.  “The mayor has made clear his ambitions for Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park with a view that it becomes home to a range of prestigious higher education, cultural and technological institutions,” said Johnson’s spokesperson. (more…)

Stephen Prina, Detail of Monochrome Painting: A Posterior Prototype: Average Size (1994), all images courtesy Patrick Painter

Patrick Painter Gallery in Los Angeles is currently hosting an impressively selected group show, culling artists from the past 30 years of practice entitled Titans of the Stratosphere, and featuring six artists: Rodney Graham, Mike Kelley, Paul McCarthy, Stephen Prina, Christopher Wool, and Andrea Zittel.

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Last week, artist Cai Guo-Qiang floated a specially made ark, filled with stuffed animals, around Shanghai harbor, in an attempt to draw further attention to the port city’s heavily polluted waters.  “Not being dead leaves possibilities and space for imagination,” the artist said of his work, emphasizing the space between living and dead that his stuffed animals occupy. (more…)

The Art Newspaper investigates the current payscales for independent curators, from Milan Expo 2015’s €750,000 salary for Germano Celant, to much lower rates for small-scale fairs and biennials.  “We’re not talking about the kind of field where you say, ‘A senior vice-president makes this and a schoolteacher makes that,’” says consultant András Szántó. “One of the interesting things about the art world as a labour market is that it is so fragmented.” (more…)

The use of 3D Printing in contemporary art is growing, and this week, the International Foundation for Art Research will host a special event investigating the impact and use of the advanced technology in current studio practices.  “The technology, which facilitates replication, has legal implications, such as patent and copyright infringement and, down the road, possibly also forgery and fraud”, says Ifar Executive Director Sharon Flescher. (more…)

Roman Signer, Flasche (Bottle) (2007)

The summer season means a few things for the art world: beach installations, special projects in the Hamptons, and of course, group shows. During the hot summer months many galleries are presenting selections of works by different artists through various thematic ideas, giving gallery goers the opportunity to discover new readings between different artists’ works.  Among these galleries is Koenig & Clinton, hosting Fixing a Hole, a group exhibition investigating the notion of “fixing” in both meanings: mending what is broken and securing what is unstable. The tightly-curated selection focuses on a niche concept, making the occasionally challenging group show tradition an appealing one. Works in various mediums articulate the instincts of correction and stabilization of a dysfunctional case, arguing for the sensation of readjustment. (more…)

Tara Donovan, Untitled (2014) via Art Observed

The geometric, visually imaginative work of Tara Donovan takes its inspiration from simple movements, simple gestures elevated by their repetition and internal harmony.  Her work finds its form through the interaction of its elements, the spatial and compositional considerations of her materials, placed in close proximity and allowed to engage in a conversation between each singular element and the final form these pieces ultimately create.

Tara Donovan, Untitled (2014) via Art Observed

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The New Museum has promoted curator Massimiliano Gioni to the position of Artistic Director, putting him at the forefront of the institution’s short-term and long-term planning. “Widely recognized as one of the most influential and admired curators working today, Massimiliano represents the New Museum around the world at major art events and through his lectures at many international venues,” says Director Lisa Phillips.

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The newest Hauser and Wirth space in Somerset opens its doors this week in the small town of Bruton.  The new gallery is celebrating its opening with a show of works by artist Phyllida Barlow, titled Gig.  But is also showing a number of site-specific installations on its expansive grounds. (more…)